EvilNinjaX

I just got the IL PIPISTRELLO dvd starring Massimo Murru and Alessandra Ferri at La Scala Ballet. Music by Strauss and choreography by Roland Petit. It's quite breathtaking and the video and sound quality are first rate (as to be expected from a TDK release).

Is this DIE FLEDERMAUS? i'm not familiar enough with the work, but it seem ssimilar at least. Does anyone have any further information about this ballet. I'm just really taken with it...

[link removed re: video download policy]

-goro-

I got these dvds from japan.

Here are the tdk pages:

Ivan teh Terrible: http://www.core.tdk.co.jp/gt/index01.asp?u...01/bal07200.asp

La Sylphide :

http://www.core.tdk.co.jp/gt/index01.asp?u...01/bal07100.asp

Bolshoi Ballet - Between Fame and Drill

http://www.core.tdk.co.jp/gt/index01.asp?u...01/bal07000.asp

so far, from what i've seen La Sylphide is aboslutely stunning. gorgeous production, gorgeous dvd (pristine video and audio). the dancing is excellent as is the acting. Mathieu Ganio and Aurelie Dupont are both sensational and the end of Act I gave me chills.

Nicholas Le Riche as Ivan the terrible is a vision. the produciton is unbelievable. i haven't had time to watch much of it though.

Between Fame and Drill is quite interesting, althogh, it's in russian with japanese subtitles (and my kanji reading is less than so-so ). But it's still quite an interesting look into the selection, trianing, and achievements of these children.

-goro-

Richard, the POB Sleeping Beauty release is a curious one.  Because several other recent POB DVDs have been released here -- Coppelia, Paquita, Clavigo, Don Q and Ek's Apartment -- but not the Sleeping Beauty.  These are "TDK" releases.  TDK also has chosen not to release (yet, I hope) the Bolshoi's Pharaoh's Daughter.  But patience is sometimes rewarded as the Kirov's Nijinsky program was on European TV years ago but has finally been released here.

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You are correct, those POB releases are TDK and TDK has done a nice job of stepping thei rrelease, first in UK, then Japan, then US. And also to TDK's credit, their dvds are beautiful: nice, crips anamorphic picture with beautiful sound.

however, the POB Sleeping Beauty is an NVCArts/Warner dvd and they are not so good in their relesaes. apparently, they relese thru Kultur in the US. I've had my r2 PAL Kirov Le Corsaire for seemingly ever and it is only now that it is being released in the US? It does seem that Kultur (as of late) has set up a nice timetable of releasing 2-4 ballet dvds each quarter and so maybe there's hope after all..

-goro-

A series of Canadian-produced videos in which dancers discuss various ballets, aided by performance excerpts.  Here is a description (after a quick search) of the Coppelia/Cinderella program:

http://www.videoflicks.ca/titles/1098/1098...PE=0&ASSN=20482

It appears that most of the series is out of print, at least as far as the North American market goes.  Info, anyone?

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i think this is the official site:

http://www.soundventure.com/web/footnotes/episodes.html

i notice that there are 20 1/2hr eps.

these dvds are 80+min long, so i assume 3 eps per dvd. that's 12 eps. i wonder what's with the missing 8?

-goro-

i would post this to the Videos section, but i don't have permissions.

i was browsing thru Japanese dvd listing today and found FOOTNOTES: THE CLASSICS OF BALLET DVD Volumes 1-4 are to be released 4/27.

I'm ready to preorder them except i need to know if they are (originally) in english. I know they are a canadian production and these dvds only have Japanese subs, so if they are in french, i am (somewhat) out of luck and will have to wait for an r1 release.

thx

-goro-

My latest dvd order just came in today. I got BOLSHOI BALLET - BETWEEN FAME AND DRILL (a documentary about the Bolshoi Ballet school), IVAN THE TERRIBLE (Paris Opera Ballet), and LA SYLPHIDE (Paris Opera Ballet).

interesting, the LA SYLPHIDE is not Bournonville, but is a Pierre Lacotte staging of Phillipe Taglioni. can someone explain/describe the history of this choreography? I've only seen the Bournonville a couple of times; could someone explain what the differences are that i should note?

thankx

-goro-

some guys not mentioned:

Vadim Pisarev

Nicholas Le Riche

and the absolute most amazing virtuoso dancer i've ever seen:

Tetsuya Kumakawa.

-goro-

I got into ballet seeing life magazine pictures of nureyev's leaps.  But over the years I have come to appreciate the work it takes to be a good, if not great partner.  I know in ballroom dancing it is almost unforgivable for a male to allow his partner to hit the floor.  He is expected to at least try and break her fall, using his own body.  Carlos Acosta has said the thing he fears most is to drop his ballerina. So he has done thousands of pushups to strengthen himself.

            I also realize that a ballerina can make things easier for her partner if she does certain things, like push off to help with a lift.

            Who are great partners of the past or present?  What made/makes  them great?  Does it depends on their early training and makeup?  Marcelo Gomes, who I consider a great partner, said to me he really cares for and enjoys the partnering aspect of his dancing.

   

                my other choices of great male partners are:

              Ivan Nagy

              Anthony Dowell

              Carlos Acosta

              Jose Manuel Carreno

              Julio Bocca (esp. over the last 5 years)

              Angel Corella

              Kobberg

              Richard Cragun(dancer with the stuggart ballet in the 1970's)

           

  If anyone can enlighten me on the female side, please do!!!  

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http://www.kirov.com/hstories/lezhnina/hilezhnina1.html

interesting that Lezhnina points out that Farukh Ruzimatov was a poor partner.

-goro-

I am aware that the captioned topic is not exactly "ballet music" stuff... so please move it if needed.

I read on another thread a suggestion about copying hte music from a DVD into a CD.  I would like to know how you exactly go about doing this, i.e., what equipment is needed

thank you

silvy

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There are several ways to do this, depending on whether you are willing to pay a littl ebit of money for a utility or whether you want to use free ones.

PAY METHOD :

buy a dvd audio ripper. These are readily findable and run about $30.

The audio rippers are fairly nice. I have imToo's AudioRipper and it's ok. There appear to be better ones out now. You just select which tracks to ripp and it converts to .wav or .mp3.

FREE METHOD:

download the following utilities:

DVDDecrypter

FlaskMPEG

ac3dec

ripp your dvd using DVDDecrypter. It will be many files (.vob, .ifo, .bup) in a single directory. Then, using Flask, open that dvd image. in one of the options tabs, specify "Decode audio into file" and then specify the filelocation\name. Run flask. Flask will generate a .ac3 file, which is the AC3 Dolby Digital audio file. Run ac3dec. Drag the .ac3 file onto ac3dec and it will convert it to a .wav.

After a little testing, you can do this with only SMARTRipper and ac3dec. Just ripp using SMARTRipper, but in the STREAM PROCESSING TAB, select "Enable Stream Processing", select the audio track you want (sometimes they have multiple audio tracks), then select "Demux to extra file". Ripp and it'll create the .ac3 file. Then use ac3dec to make your .wav.

if you want to speed up/slow down the tempo or trim out bits or try to filter out applause, then you should use a nice .wav editor like CoolEditPro (which costs, but i'm not sure how much these days).

HTH

you can email me (evilninjax@gmail.com) if you need further help.

-goro-

Cygnet,

Here's a link to the German Amazon site where you can buy Manon:

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000...4685628-7523240

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also available on amazon.co.uk, which is easier fo rus english-language readers to navigate.

-goro-

Hey! I am searching for a clean version of the Gulnare variation performed by Paloma Herrera in the ABT's version of Le Corsaire Act I. I looked at the other Le Corsaire posts on this board, but none of them seemed to deal with this variation in particular. Does anyone know where I can get it, or if the variation is on the Le Corsaire version found at www.christopherseminars.com? I tried to listen to the excerpts, but didn't find it. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Bally

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you could just ripp the audio from the DVD to .wav, trim it using a .wav editor (llike CoolEditPro) and then burn to CD.

I've done this many times for my ballet teacher for music (Le Corsiare, Don Q, Raymonda, ... ) in her variations class. The audio tempo from music from dvd is generally better to dance to than a CD (depending on the CD and then that requires expense and effort to find a CD with good tempo).

-goro-

I'm trapped in Arizona but have means to get to LA. I heard that Ethan Stiefel is taking over as AD at Ballet Pacifica, so that's cool for this side of the US. Last year, ABT was in LA for Romeo and Juliet (which i unfotunatley missed) and Miami City Ballet came to Tucson for Coppelia nad Mixed program. I'm wondering if anything "good" is coming this way in 2005 for me to keep an eye out for.

tia

-goro-

What dvd's do you have of Tetsuya Kumakawa? Do you know if they're sold commercially? If so, where did you buy them? I saw a tape a while ago that had a few variations by Kumakawa: Corsaire, two different filmings of Solor's variation from Bayadere, and some jumps and turns in a studio.

I also saw him last summer in New York perform Ashton's Rhapsody with the K-Ballet, originally made for Baryshnikov. He was so incredible. He did a series of 540's like they were a walk in the park. And his turns, my god, his turns.

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I'm jealous tha tyou got to see Teddy live. I almost made it out to Tokyo this spring to see Don Q.

The DVDs i have are Carmen, Bolero, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Giselle, and Being A Dancer (documentary). The Being A Dancer doc has lots of variations including (otomh) Le Corsaire, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, Don Q, Giselle. It also has a 20min long made for tv Spectre de la Rose with a very nice re-imagining of the storyline, featuring a young girl who is now dancing in KBallet and danced in Coppelia (which i have on order) and an older woman who i believe may have been Teddy's teacher in his youth. There's also footage of him as a 12-14 yo doing donQ and of him as a 8yo doing chainees and stretching arabesque at the barre. it's way cool.

he does 3 consecutive 540s in his Don Q variation. unebelievable. he also does 8 pirouettes, the last 3 with port de bras.

of course, these dvds are (a) Region 2, (b) quite expensive ($70+ per disc)

email me (evilninjax@gmail.com) we can discuss further, if you'd lke.

-goro-

hi

I have had the privilege of seeing on tape vladimir malakhov at the moscow international competition in 1989. he performed Narcisse (he obviously won the gold medal in this competition)

seeing him,I though that three gods of dance have danced Narcisse: Nijinski c. fokin,  and Vladimir Vasiliev and Vladimir Malakhov c. Goleizovsky.

just curiosity,I have been searching on the net malakhov´s age and it doesnt appear,not even in his official website. is his age a secret??

jose manuel

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Hi Jose Manuel,

i agree that Malakhov is incredible, although i tend to enjoy danseurs who are more along my type (Angel Corella, Vadim Pisarev, Tetsuya Kumakawa, et al.); at least i can pretend i am those guys, unlike the beautiful long-limbed, amazing lined guys like Malakhov, Stiefel, et al.

Anyway, i recently got a dvd called MY FAVORITE THINGS which is a dvd of 3 episodes of a UK tv programme (apprently). The first episode features Malakhov with a short interview with him and him performing Manon pas de deux with Diana Vishneva, a solo, and another pas de deux with someone i forget right now. Part 2 was Lucia Lacarra and her fiancee(?). Part 3 was a japanese female ballerina who i forget right now.

it's worht checking out.

-goro-

She appeared with the K Ballet as the ballerina consort in Rhapsody during the Ashton Centennial this summer at Lincoln Center in NYC.  Go to the Ashton Centennial forum on the site, there are reports.

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She dances with K-Ballet all the time. is she a principal there? Seems like Kumakawa doesn't dance with anyone else. She was in Carmen, Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, and i believe Don Q.

-goro-

i recently watched a tape of Sarabia, Carreno, and one other male dancer working out after class. They were doing some sick virtuso stuff, like triple tours en l'air, triple saut de baseques, crazy turn combos.

i also saw a tape of a couple of competition of Sarabia's. incredible. One where he goes from several a la secondes to about 5 pirouettes and then into a double tour en retire was stunning.

i've also got these dvds of Tetsuya Kumakawa. He is the most impressive technically of anyone i've ever seen. he does a brilliant double tour combination in SWAN LAKE and his Don Q variation is mind-blowingly incredible. quite easily my favorite male dancer, even though he's not the stage presence, persona as Carreno, et al.

i have no idea why these guys are not more well known, except that maybe guys like Rasta Thomas are "prettier" ? (Rasta's just plain sick in his own right, though!)

-goro-

i just wanted to add that when MCB came to Tucson, AZ, i had a chance to go down and meet some of the dancers, watched company class, and rehearsals as well as see COPPELIA, Ballo, Nine by Sinatra and s few others.

I also had a chance to meet Edward Villella, spoke to him for a bit, and had him autograph my PRODIGAL SON. He's the nicest guy and he runs a very interesting company class.

Also, in his book, i believe he speaks about performing in the Bell Telephone Hour. Is there any hope of these being released a la Nureyev and Erik Bruhn?

-goro-